It's kind of like being the baddest boy on the block, but living next to Godzilla. A massive, bustling, international city, Shenzhen is smack dab next to the world's premiere metropolis, Hong Kong. If in similar proximity, Beijing and Shanghai would also lose much by comparison.
Of course, there's more to a city than financial centers and property values. For those of us who like a little soul in our cities, we got Shenzhen. At least the Lonely Writers do, and to follow up Shopping in Shenzhen, a comprehensive guide to plumbing the city for bargains, they've given us Living in Shenzhen, a 256 page mini-tome that proves Shenzhen has arrived.
Rather than "guidebook", Editor in Chief Adriano Lucchese calls Living in Shenzhen a "lifebook". That means not just well-laid out, comprehensive info, but also what he calls "the beauty and drama of this ever-changing megacity". So readers get a lot of nice touches to what is already a clean, user-friendly, meaty guidebook. For example, 12-year old Lin Yunlu gives us a two-page essay on celebrating New Year's, an authentic Chinese story that follows an exposition on the Four Arts of the Chinese Scholar.
Living in Shenzhen pays extra attention to kids actually, anticipating the biggest worries of expats: making the move to what many erroneously consider a remote outpost. Not just education listings, but also a 17-page section on kids' activities, from skate parks to youth sports programs, show concerned expat parents that weekends in Shenzhen can consist of more than desultory DVD watching. Six pages on getting your pets registered and cared for in Guangzhou means this lifebook is looking out for all your drooling dependents.
Let's see, what else do parochial westerners fear about a new life in China? Right, health care. Living in Shenzhen lists sixteen international - standard hospitals and dental clinics, plenty for moneyed foreigners to choose from, if not for all of the city's 17 million residents. There's even a section on traditional Chinese medicine, for those with the courage to trust nature over Big Pharma.
With health and hearth attended to, an enterprising expat's priorities run to money. This is where Living in Shenzhen shines through. No less than 24 pages of articles provide a micro-MBA in getting your business venture up and running. Legal entities, taxes, operations and other bugbears haunting the golden dreams of expat entrepreneurs are shooed away with expert advice from foreign heavy-hitters who have already knocked it out of the park in Shenzhen. Twenty pages of chambers and associations listings bring networkers within two degrees of separation from just about anyone they need to know in Deep Drains (That's what ‘Shenzhen' means. You'll know after you read the book.)
Attention to detail proves that Living in Shenzhen is a labor of love, rather than a magazine sideline. The University of Shenzhen listing gives an extra number for one Ms Liao Wensui , for those needing info in English. The shopping map not only has pinpoint locations, but those locations are blown up to show which mall has the IKEA and which the B&Q. The Shekou Wet Market, a paradise of fresh produce and authentic South China flavor, gets its own map layout, along with a food vocab list, including Mandarin characters to show stall vendors tired of your pantomime and bad pronunciation.
Nightlife, restaurants, transportation? Check, check , and triple-check, all given full shrift in concise format. An A-Z section covers all that miscellany that suddenly becomes vital once you've settled in. Tips on buying cheese, plus-size fashions, golf equipment, and, yes hipsters, organic food, are laid out for all those foreigners dragged kicking and screaming into their China experience. A read through Living in Shenzhen just might make you one of the growing hoard who decide to stop and stay for a while, instead of jumping right over to that little island next door.
